Science Fiction Othello
by gamooma
Summary: The title says it all: a sci-fi version of Othello.
1. Introduction

Title: Science Fiction Othello  
  
Author: gamooma  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Archive: Sure. Just let me know where it's going.  
  
Feedback: Yes please! I'd love to see some reviews. Feel free to email me at shagbag_the_basher@yahoo.com.au  
  
Notes: This was a school assignment. We had to make our own adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. I'd been up all night reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams when the idea came to me. This is basically a science fiction version of the entire play.  
  
Enjoy! 


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One  
  
Roderigo and Iago zipped along side by side in their Carbon Anti-gravity Repositioning Systems (more commonly known as CARS). They were at an altitude of 3000 feet, weaving between the skyscrapers of the planet Earth. Roderigo transmitted a message to his car from the chip implanted in his frontal lobe, telling it to go on autopilot so he could concentrate on his conversation with Iago, with whom he was at that moment speaking to on his mobile phone. The car had been nagging him about using a mobile phone and driving for several minutes.  
"Anything to get you to shut up," Roderigo muttered under his breath.  
"What?" Came Iago's indignant reply.  
"No, not you. The car." He sighed. "Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yes. I thought you said you hated Othello."  
"I do. I hate him. If he was here right now I'd spit in both his faces! How could he promote that idiot Cassio instead of me? A man that's never even shot down a battle drone in deep space instead of me? I hate his mutated guts!"  
"Then why cover up his dirty little secret?" Asked Roderigo, pressing a few buttons to make the skin of his car translucent in time to see Iago do the same.  
"You think I'm covering up the fact that the mutant has gone off and married Brabantio's daughter?" Iago glared at Roderigo, who gave the tiniest of nods. "Ha! I would never do anything for that two-headed freak unless it suited my plans to do so."  
Roderigo's left eyebrow rose slightly. "Oh yeah?"  
"Well, why don't we go tell Brabantio where his daughter is right now?" Without another word they each regained control of their cars and veered off in the direction of Brabantio's cryogenic sleeping facility.  
Within minutes they were outside the large building that housed, among other things, Brabantio's sleeping place. Hovering outside his window, Iago instructed his in-car computer to make contact with the building's computer and terminate Brabantio's sleep period early. After several minutes of thawing Brabantio's window became translucent and he glared out angrily at the two men hovering outside his window. Iago and Roderigo docked their cars with the building and established an audio connection with Brabantio's room.  
"What is the meaning of this?" Brabantio shouted. "Why have you hooligans disturbed my rest?"  
"My apologies. We came to tell you that you've been robbed." Said Iago.  
"Robbed? What's all this about robbery?" Brabantio slurred, still drowsy from the cryogenic freezing process.  
"Your daughter, Brabantio. Othello has stolen your daughter!"  
"What? No, my Desdemona is still sleeping in her cryo chamber."  
"Send a droid to check." Said Iago, watching as Brabantio called for a droid and instructed it. Seconds later the droid returned and delivered the news that Desdemona was indeed not in her chamber.  
"What's going on?" Brabantio asked. "Where is my daughter?"  
"With Othello." Roderigo answered him. Brabantio fumbled around in his cryogenic tank for a moment, retrieving a Laser Pulse Kill-o-matic 3000 and motioned for Roderigo to open his hatch and let him aboard. Roderigo complied, then turned to Iago.  
"They are at the Planet X Hotel, I think." Iago replied to the unspoken question.  
"Then what are we waiting for?" Brabantio shouted. "Let's go!"  
Roderigo pulled away from the building and drove towards the Planet X. Iago pulled out more slowly, twisting knobs and pushing buttons on a large and brightly lit control panel. Unbeknownst to Roderigo and Brabantio, Iago had recently had a teleportation device installed in his car. With the co- ordinates input, Iago smiled to himself before pressing a large red button and disintegrating into several billion tiny particles.  
  
".And that dog Roderigo went over and woke Brabantio up and told him you'd be here with Desdemona." Iago concluded in a most hurt and outraged tone. He and Othello were standing on the multitude of stars on the carpet in the hall of the Planet X Hotel. "I'm only telling you this as a concerned friend."  
A look of gratitude passed over one of Othello's faces. The other looked quietly confident. It was this head that spoke, saying, "I'm glad you came to warn me, but I don't think I need to be worried. I am the general of the armed forces of the entire Earth, after all."  
"Yes, but Brabantio was really angry. I don't know what he might do."  
At that moment a panel in the seamless wall behind them slid open, revealing a LCD screen. Both of Othello's heads swung around to face it as Cassio's face appeared on the screen.  
"Othello," Cassio said in a highly officious tone, "You are required by the President. She needs to see you right now."  
"But how." Each of Othello's heads swivelled in an opposite direction.  
"How did you know where he was?" Iago finished for him.  
"Big Brother is always watching." Cassio winked at them.  
Othello's questions were cut off by the sound of heavy footfalls. Brabantio rounded a corner in the corridor and levelled his Laser Pulse Kill-o-matic 3000 at Othello's left head.  
The unfortunate left head stared mesmerised at the barrel of the huge gun. His right head spoke. "Now just calm down."  
"What have you done with my daughter?" Brabantio was red in the face and shouting. "You must have hypnotised her with some kind of new mind control device! I'm going to arrest you and have you sent to one of those prisons on Pluto!" The cheeks of Othello's left face paled slightly, but his right head stayed calm.  
"I don't want to fight you. At the moment I've got a meeting I need to be at." The right head said calmly. His left head collected it's wits enough to nod. Cassio's smiling face on the LCD screen confirmed the fact.  
"Fine, but we'll come with you." That being said, Brabantio lowered his gun and followed Othello out to his car.  
  
The President was sitting in the 457th floor of the elaborately decorated parliamentary building. She was sitting at a large round table, along with all the senators. She eyed each of the senators in turn before speaking.  
"So are there Andromedan warships headed for the Pleiades, or aren't there?" She asked.  
"We're receiving conflicting reports," replied one of the senators, "And the Universal Tracking System is down, so we can't be sure."  
"What happened to the UTS this time?" Asked the President, suppressing a sigh. She glanced at the science advisor who was sinking lower in his chair and pretending he wasn't there. "Well." She prompted.  
"Um. I think one of our leading scientists might have. um."  
"What?" She roared. The President hated talking of war and was getting impatient.  
".Spilled coffee all over the hard disc." He squeaked his conclusion.  
"We'll have to send someone to take control of the Pleiades for a while. Who should go?"  
"How about Montano?" One voice piped up.  
"No, no. He has no experience."  
"Othello, then. He's experienced." Another senator suggested.  
"Yes, he's good." Agreed the President.  
At that moment Othello walked in, followed by Cassio, Roderigo, Iago and the dishevelled looking Brabantio.  
"Othello, we need you to help us fight the Andromedans." The President began, only then noticing Brabantio. "Oh, Brabantio, where've you been?"  
"Me? Where have I been? Only off having my daughter stolen from me while I was asleep!" Brabantio roared.  
"Stolen?" Inquired the President.  
"Yes. Stolen. By this man here; this mutant." He said, wildly gesticulating in the direction of one of Othello's heads. "He used some sort of mind control device or subliminal messages or something and forced my daughter to marry him!"  
"Is this true?" The President asked Othello.  
"No! Call Desdemona." His left head exclaimed with conviction. "She'll tell you," continued his right head, "That all the things I told her about my adventures got her interested in me." "And we're in love!" Concluded his left head.  
The President ordered for a video call to be placed to Desdemona's room at the Planet X Hotel. When the call was connected the surface of the table rippled and the plain black was replaced with the image of Desdemona's roller clad head. The senators leaned forward, eagerly awaiting Desdemona's side of the story. The science advisor pulled one of the senators aside and whispered that it was better than reality TV.  
"Your father tells us Othello used some sort of mind control on you to make you marry him. Is this true?" Asked the President.  
"Of course not!" Desdemona said, hastily removing curlers from her hair. "I love you, dad, but I also love Othello."  
"Good. Next order of business." Said the President, relieved. "Othello, we're sending you to the Pleiades to help with the war effort."  
"All the way to the Pleiades?" Desdemona squeaked. "I want to go with him!"  
The president looked to Othello, who mouthed the word 'please'.  
"Ok. You can go on Iago's ship. You'll be expected at the space port bright and early." With that the president dismissed them.  
Iago and Roderigo found themselves alone on the way to their cars. After a long silence Roderigo suddenly turned and bashed his head against a wall.  
"What am I going to do now? Desdemona's married!" He wailed.  
"Let me tell you," Iago said conspiratorially, "As long as you've got plenty of Earth dollars, Desdemona will still get along with you. Follow her to the Pleiades. There's bound to be room for one extra person on one of the ships."  
Roderigo smiled gratefully and got into his car. Left alone, Iago began to ponder rumours about his wife, Emilia. "People say she's been sleeping with that mutant." He began muttering to himself. "Well I'll show him. I'll show him for giving Cassio a promotion and sleeping with my wife. I'll tell him Desdemona's sleeping with Cassio. He'll believe me. Both his heads are gullible and he trusts me." Just then a cleaning robot rolled past him.  
"Talking to yourself is a sign of madness, you know." It's metallic voice droned at him. Blushing, he got into his car and flew off. 


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
  
Montano, the ruler of all the planets in the Pleiades system, stood in a space port on Pleiades 6 awaiting news of the fleet of earth spaceships. He'd been monitoring readings of severe solar flares and huge space winds for days.  
"One good thing's come of all this bad space weather." Remarked a nearby man, his antennae waving cheerfully. "It wiped out those warships from Andromeda."  
Montano gave the green man a friendly smile before returning his gaze back out into space. He squinted hard and made out the outline of two spaceships. He kept his eyes on them as they came in to dock. They were undoubtedly two of the ships from Earth. He walked over to greet them.  
Cassio's ship arrived first and he disembarked in a cheerful mood. He joined Montano to greet the next ship, which landed a moment later. Roderigo, Iago, Emilia and Desdemona got off.  
"Welcome to the Pleiades." Montano said. They all assured him they were glad to be there.  
"The ride was pretty rough," Cassio said to Desdemona, "I hope you weren't space sick."  
"No, I was fine." She said as he walked over to give her a hug. "Have you heard from Othello?"  
"No, not yet. We lost him on our radar in the solar flare. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be here soon." Cassio assured her. Moments after that they spotted another spaceship in the sky. They made way for the ship to land.  
The ramp slowly lowered from the bottom of the ship. Othello walked down the ramp, eyes on both heads scanning the crowd. As soon as he spotted Desdemona his faces lit up and he raced over to her. She was most delighted when he placed kisses simultaneously on both her cheeks.  
"Come on, lets go and relax after all that space travel." There was a general murmur of consent and Montano led Othello, Desdemona, Cassio and Emilia away.  
"Pst. Roderigo." Called Iago.  
"What?" Roderigo was in a foul mood and the rough space travel had only made it worse.  
"Desdemona will get tired of that mutant eventually." He said with the expression of a fortuneteller.  
"Right. Sure." Roderigo stalked off.  
Iago stood there despising everyone who had the nerve to be happy. "If only I could bring them all down." Pondering how to do this, he stomped away after Roderigo.  
  
Othello led Cassio to the deep space advanced warning facility. It was a room filled with sleek black and silver equipment with blinking lights and a multitude of knobs and buttons. In the centre was a small computer monitor with the thumbs up sign on it. It was this that Othello gestured to.  
"The Andromedan warships have been wiped out. But just in case there's anything out there, you know how this system works. As long as it's thumbs up there are no hostile ships approaching. If there are, just holler for someone. Ok?" Othello said while glancing at the door, clearly wanting to be somewhere else.  
"Ok." With that Othello left, just as Iago was walking in. Iago gave him a pleasant smile as he passed him. He watched Othello leave before waving a bottle of wine in Cassio's face.  
"The Andromedan's entire space based army is gone, we're on a stable planet, life is good. Let's celebrate!" He started pouring.  
"I shouldn't." Cassio mumbled.  
Iago looked puzzled. "Why not?"  
"Well." Cassio said to his shoes, "I don't handle the alcohol very well."  
Iago's eyes lit up. "Just have one little drink with me." He pleaded.  
"Oh, alright." Cassio said, taking a sip just as Montano and some space fighter pilots walked in.  
"Have a drink with us." Iago invited. By the time they'd agreed Cassio had poured himself another glass.  
"2954. a good year." Someone remarked.  
After some time and several drinks Cassio left in search of a toilet. It wasn't long before he returned. Roderigo burst into the room with Cassio in hot pursuit. Cassio slurred something unintelligible and whacked him over the head. Montano grabbed one of his arms and tried to pull him away. He only succeeded in having Cassio take a swipe at him. Iago retreated into a corner and pressed a small blue button and everything erupted in a flash of red light and warning sirens. A group of passing teenagers gathered around, yelling, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"  
Othello came rushing in just as Cassio collapsed on the floor. "What's going on here?" He yelled in his most authoritative voice. Roderigo and Montano were panting and wheezing, so he turned to Iago. Iago shuffled his feet. His eyes looked everywhere but at Othello. "Well?" Othello prompted.  
"There was a fight." He mumbled. Othello looked at the other occupants of the room.  
"Really? I never would have guessed." His left head made a sarcastic face.  
"Cassio." Iago trailed off.  
"Cassio!" Roared both of Othello's heads. Cassio looked up at him from his position on the floor. "You're fired! You can hand in your Laser Blaster when you get back to Earth." He gave the room a menacing stare before leaving. Roderigo helped Montano to limp out the door as well. The teenagers slowly straggled away.  
Cassio groaned and sat up, trying not to throw up. "What am I going to do?" He moaned.  
"Don't worry," Iago said soothingly, "I'm sure he didn't mean it. He'll probably take it back once he cools down a bit." After a pause he added, "I'm sure if you talked to Desdemona she could put in a good word for you." Cassio just groaned. Iago helped him up and found a service robot to take him to his room.  
Left alone, Iago gave an evil laugh. He'd been practising and he was quite pleased with how it sounded. "Desdemona's good friends with Cassio. She'll nag the mutant about him, for sure. All I have to do is tell Othello she's more than friends with Cassio and I'll be able to ruin them all!" He practised his evil laugh a bit more. "I'll get Emilia to talk to Desdemona about Cassio and." He was cut off by Roderigo bursting through the door.  
"Talking to yourself, Iago? It's not a good sign." He shook his head to clear it. "Anyway, I'm leaving the Pleiades. I'm going back to Earth."  
"No, stay." Iago tried to think of a reason.  
"Why? Desdemona doesn't love me." His voice rose to a painful squeak at the end.  
"Never fear!" Iago said boldly. "I have a plan." He wiggled his eyebrows as if to suggest it was a great plan.  
"Ok. I'll stay." Roderigo said reluctantly. Sighing, he limped away. 


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three  
  
Othello sat in a reclining red velvet chair in front of a huge cinema screen. On it he was watching a live broadcast of Desdemona's favourite band, the Supernovas, in concert. She sat in the chair next to him, bobbing her head and mouthing the lyrics. Neither of Othello's heads had a clue what the song was about, but Desdemona seemed to like it, and that was all that mattered.  
The concert was drawing to a close when Iago and Emilia came in. Iago seemed quite keen on having Othello inspect the new vacuum atomising cannon that had just arrived. Kissing Desdemona's cheeks, Othello followed him out, leaving the two ladies alone.  
"Come and see Cassio with me." Emilia said to her almost immediately.  
"I feel so sorry for him." Sighed Desdemona, her eyes filling with tears of sympathy. "Yes, lets go see him." After a short ride on the revolving walkway, they found him admiring the hydroponics facility. Small trees stretched up towards the heat lamps on the ceiling and thick vines covered the walls. Cassio peeked out from behind a fern.  
"Hi Desdemona, Emilia." He added Emilia's name almost as an afterthought. "I've been meaning to talk to you."  
"I've been meaning to talk to you too. I'm so sorry about your job."  
Looking deep into Desdemona's big, brown watery eyes, Cassio knew she would help him. "Would you talk to Othello for me? Please?" He turned on the puppy dog eyes.  
"Of course, Cassio. I'm sure he'll reinstate you as soon as all this blows over. I'll talk to him about it." She said most sincerely. Emilia, standing near the door, coughed slightly. When they both turned to her she gestured at the corridor.  
"Iago and Othello are coming just now." She said. Cassio looked nervous.  
"He might still be mad at me. I better go." He murmured, walking out the door just as they were walking in.  
Iago leaned close to Othello's ear, whispering, "Strange that he should be in such a hurry to leave. I wonder what he and Desdemona were talking about." Othello frowned slightly before turning to Desdemona.  
"Hello my widdle space monkey." She cooed. "I was just talking to Cassio. Is it possible that you've been a bit hard on him?"  
"I suppose." Othello's right head said while his left head nodded thoughtfully.  
"Perhaps you should think about re-hiring him." Desdemona prodded gently.  
"Perhaps." Said the left head as the right nodded even more thoughtfully.  
"I've known him since we were barely out of the cloning tubes, after all, and he's a good man. Anyway, we should go, shouldn't we Emilia." Emilia nodded and they stepped onto the revolving walkway.  
Iago picked thoughtfully at the fronds of a small palm tree. "She's known Cassio for a long time?" He asked inquiringly.  
"Yeah." Othello stared at him with both sets of eyes, trying to figure out what was going on in his friend's mind.  
"Hmm." Iago hummed thoughtfully. "Cassio's an honest man, surely." He mumbled.  
"What's going on in that head of yours, Iago?" Othello looked puzzled.  
"Well." He took a lengthy pause for effect, but seeing Othello's eyes start to wander and his foot start to tap Iago decided he'd paused just a little too long and said "You can't get all jealous or anything, now."  
"Jealous? Me? Never. um. jealous of what, exactly?" Othello's attention was firmly fixed on Iago at this point.  
"Desdemona being all buddy buddy with Cassio." Iago blurted.  
"What are you getting at?" Othello asked.  
"Well, you know Earth women aren't the most." Iago seemed to search for a word, "Truthful women in the universe. and Desdemona did lie to her father about marrying you. Perhaps she's not being entirely honest with you about things."  
"You think she's lying to me about something?" Othello said softly.  
Iago ignored his hurt stare and continued. "She's a beautiful woman and you. well, you have more than the average number of heads. Anyway, I've got stuff to do, if you'll excuse me." With that he stepped onto the revolving walkway and was whisked out of sight. Othello's right head mused over what had been said. His left head mused over a beautiful, exotic looking purple flower.  
"Iago's really smart." He sighed. "I am a mutant. Why would Desdemona want me?"  
A gardening robot walked by. "Dunno about humans. Talking to themselves." It observed in it's electronic voice. "Must be out of his little biological mind." It waved it's clippers at him.  
Desdemona came in, tripped over the unfortunate robot. She was followed by Emilia, who wandered around the hydroponics facility looking at all the pretty flowers.  
"Hi honey." Desdemona said, smiling sweetly and walking over to kiss Othello. He avoided her lips with both his heads and stared at the ground.  
"What's the matter?" She squeaked, trying not to look offended.  
"I've just got a headache." Othello groaned. Desdemona searched her purse, coming up with the strawberry spotted facial fix-all that Othello had given her before they married. He pushed it away and it fell on the floor. Luckily it had an anti-shock feature and was unbreakable. It simply bounced a couple of times.  
"I think somebody needs some cryogenically induced rest." She cooed and led him away. Emilia walked over to where the strawberry spotted facial fix- all was laying on the ground and picked it up.  
"Ooh. It has an anti-headache mechanism and an auto-makeup drive. and it's waterproof!" She exclaimed. "No wonder Iago wanted me to steal it."  
Iago strolled in.  
"Speak of the devil." Emilia murmured.  
"What?"  
"Oh, nothing. I got Desdemona's fix-all for you." She held it out for him to see, face beaming with pride.  
"It's about time." He grunted, taking it. "Keep your mouth shut about this." Hurt by his callousness, Emilia stormed out. Iago, looking around to make sure he wasn't being watched, stepped into a nearby teleportation capsule and entered the coordinates for Cassio's room.  
"I'll just leave this somewhere where he'll find it." He muttered as he stepped in. Moments later he returned without the fix-all. Pleased with himself he practised his evil laugh again, amazed at how deranged it was starting to sound. The gardening robot limped by, shaking it's head scornfully, if a robot can be said to be scornful.  
Othello stormed in, tripping over the robot. This time it didn't bother to get up, deciding that it would be safer to lie there until the clumsy humans were gone.  
"You!" Othello shouted, a stern expression on both his faces. He shook both his heads at Iago. After a while he got dizzy and stopped. "How can you say Desdemona's cheating on me? You haven't even got any proof."  
"Well, one night I got the sleeping tube next to Cassio and I heard. I heard." Iago trailed off.  
"Heard what?" Othello demanded.  
"Heard him talking in his sleep. He was talking about love and having to hide his love and he kept saying Desdemona's name." Othello stood and fumed silently. "And just a minute ago I saw him wiping sweat off his face with a fix-all that looked strangely like the one you gave to Desdemona."  
Othello's right head fumed some more while his left head dunked itself in an open drainage tube, trying to drown himself.  
He pulled himself together long enough to shout, "I'll get them!"  
"I'll help you." Iago insisted, trying to look outraged and sympathetic at the same time.  
"You want to help? You can kill Cassio for me."  
"Yep. Will do." Iago's joviality was catching and Othello smiled.  
"How would you like Cassio's old job?" With that they walked off together, Iago practising his evil laugh and Othello trying to develop one of his own.  
  
Desdemona sat in the hydroponics facility, moping around and whinging to Emilia. The fresh smelling plants and colourful flowers soon lifted her mood.  
"I'm a bit worried about losing my facial fix-all, but Othello's not a jealous mutant. He'll understand." She said. Othello walked in, seeking relaxation amongst the plants as well. "I thought you were sleeping." She said to him, concerned. He grunted. "Have you seen Cassio?"  
"No!" He snapped.  
"What's the matter, darling?" She said, going over to him.  
"I've just got a bit of a mutated strain of the space flu." He said. An idea came to his right brain. "Have you got your facial fix-all?" He asked.  
Desdemona fumbled around in her purse. "Here, I have a nasal swobbler." She held out a small metal case for him to take. He just stood there.  
"But where's your fix-all?" He inquired. She mumbled and stuttered for a few seconds. "Don't tell me it's lost?"  
"Er, yes. I think I lost it somewhere." She murmured.  
"What?! That fix-all was designed by the engineers of Babylon 12! They made it with electrical impulses that promote feelings of love in the cerebral cortex of the brain." His faces were going red.  
"Have you talked to Cassio about."  
"Cassio, Cassio, Cassio!" He cut her off and stormed out in a rage.  
The teleportation capsule coughed and spluttered before spitting out Iago and Cassio. They had been to the Astro Bar and were looking for a place to relieve themselves. The hydroponics facility seemed as good a place as any. It was fortunate Iago nudged Cassio when he spotted the women. Cassio hastily did up his fly and turned to look inquiringly at Desdemona.  
She looked apologetically back at him. "I haven't really been able to talk to Othello much. He's been in a bad mood. Must be because of something to do with his official. whatever it is he does."  
"You ladies want to join me at the Astro Bar?" Iago inquired. They nodded enthusiastically and stepped into the teleporter with him.  
Left alone, Cassio spun around looking for something to do. He accidentally spun into the gardening robot, who had only just decided it was safe to get up. He gave an apologetic glance at the robot and left it writhing on the floor, because at that moment Bianca had come in. She was dressed in a revealing pixellated colour changing dress, which was pink at that moment and set off her lilac skin perfectly. She looked fantastic, and Cassio said so.  
"Don't you try to suck up to me, you. you. froodiwinkle!" She shouted, reverting back into her own language at the end. "You've been on the planet for days and haven't even visited me once! Haven't even said hello!" She wailed, her dress changing colour to a violent red. She glared at him with all three of her eyes.  
"I'm sorry, sweetie." He tried to soothe her. "I'll come and see you soon, I promise. I've just been busy with official stuff, you know?" Her dress changed to a brilliant shade of green.  
"It's not another woman, is it?" She squealed.  
"No, no. You're the only girl for me." He assured her.  
"Even if I'm not human?" She whimpered.  
"Especially because you're not human. I love you just the way you are." She calmed considerably. "Say, you're alright with the gadgets, aren't you?" He asked.  
"Sure! I go from hooker to hacker in 60 seconds." She beamed, pulling out a huge pair of square framed glasses.  
"Could you copy the wiring in this?" He asked, giving her the fix-all.  
"Hmm." She hummed, inspecting it. "I suppose. It might take a while."  
"That's ok."  
She wandered off, eyes fixed on her new gadget. 


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four  
  
Othello paced the hallways of the space port. At every turn his reflection in the mirrored ceiling seemed to taunt him. Iago was trotting along beside him, trying to keep up.  
"I'm your friend. I wouldn't lie to you." Iago huffed. "Desdemona's been cheating on you, I'm sure of it." He puffed.  
Othello wailed, clutched at his head and fainted. A mattress slid out from the base of the wall and caught him. Iago stared at it, perplexed, and wondered how often people suddenly keeled over on that planet. He stopped thinking about it and concentrated on catching his breath. Othello began to stir just as Iago's heart rate had returned to normal. He stooped down to whisper in Othello's ear.  
"I hear someone coming. Judging by the unsteadiness, it must be Cassio." He helped Othello up and shoved him behind some hideous looking modern art. "Hide here." Othello nodded dumbly.  
"Cassio!" Iago spun around and greeted him cheerfully.  
"Iago! What are you doing?" Cassio said dejectedly.  
"Just admiring this." Iago gestured at the sculpture, "Whatever it is." He took Cassio by the arm and led him away, out of hearing distance. "Has Desdemona had any luck with persuading Othello to reinstate you?"  
"No." Cassio sighed.  
"If only it was up to Bianca to persuade him." Iago smiled broadly. "Yeah." Cassio laughed. His laughter was cut short by the sound of footsteps pounding toward them. Bianca rounded a corner, her three eyes magnified and glaring behind her glasses.  
"You've given me some other woman's fix-all to copy!" She accused. "I knew it was another woman!" The fix-all's circuits were all exposed. She waved it angrily at him. "There's another woman's facial data imprinted in this circuitry!" She wailed and stomped off. Cassio chased after her. Othello crawled out from behind the sculpture and stood up.  
"You see?" Iago pointed in the direction Cassio and Bianca had just run off in. "He laughs when I mention Desdemona. He's taken the fix-all she gave him and given it to a prostitute!"  
"What should I do?" Othello wailed. His left head burst into tears.  
"I'll take care of Cassio." Iago made shooting motions. "You take care of Desdemona when she goes into her cryo chamber tonight." Othello sniffled and nodded.  
All of a sudden a set of speakers burst out of the wall and announced the arrival of ambassadors from Earth. Iago led the distraught Othello to the landing dock to see what was going on. Desdemona was already there, greeting a man who got off the ship. Othello and Iago walked over.  
"Hello. I'm Lodovico." He said to Othello. "I've come to tell you that you're wanted back on Earth and that Cassio should take control of the Pleiades for a while."  
"I hope this will make Othello and Cassio make up. I love them both." Desdemona murmured. Othello stepped closer to her and slapped her. Tears sprang to her eyes and the side of her face started to go red. She turned and ran off.  
"What are you doing, you idiot?" Lodovico yelled. "Call her back!"  
"Desdemona!" Othello shouted. She stopped and turned, wiping at her tear stained cheeks. "Cry! Cry all you want and run away!" She burst into tears again and ran. The entire landing dock was silent as Othello stormed off in the opposite direction. The silence stretched on.  
"Othello's not the man he used to be." Remarked Iago to the puzzled Lodovico, breaking the silence.  
  
"You've seen them together?" Othello demanded of Emilia.  
"Yeah, but just talking as friends." Emilia assured him. Othello began pacing the small room. "I know you think she's been cheating on you, but she's not. Desdemona's not like that. She wouldn't do that!"  
"Just go get her." Othello said, shaking his heads. Emilia left without saying another word. Othello continued to pace, muttering, "Sure she's not like that," he snorted, "She's a cunning one." Emilia returned, followed by Desdemona. "Emilia, watch the door. Make sure no-one comes in." He snapped. Emilia hurried to comply.  
"Why are you angry at me?" Desdemona looked deep into his eyes, trying to see what he was thinking.  
"Because you've been cheating on me!" He roared.  
"But I haven't!" She cried.  
"You're lying to me! You fucking whore!" He smashed a nearby vase and ran out. Emilia peeked around the door, concern masking her features. Desdemona was crying again, a pathetic sight with her puffy eyes and red face.  
"Go and get a service droid to put the wedding sheets on my bed." She sniffled. "Oh, and get Iago for me." Emilia hesitated, wanting to help but not knowing how. Eventually she just left. Desdemona sighed and closed her eyes, trying to figure things out in her mind. Things just kept going round and round and Emilia was back with Iago before she managed to solve anything.  
"What's the matter?" Iago inquired.  
"Some terrible person has been spreading rumours about Desdemona." Emilia said sympathetically. "No doubt it was the same asshole who spread the rumour that I was cheating on you."  
"What should I do?" Desdemona whimpered.  
"Relax. Running a whole solar system must be hard. I'm sure Othello didn't mean any of it. He's just stressed." Iago said in his most soothing voice. "Why don't you and Emilia go and have something to eat." He guided them out the door and pointed them in the direction of the food court.  
Walking down the hallway, Iago met Roderigo. He was fuming, red faced and swearing to himself as he stomped along.  
"Iago!" He roared when he spotted him. "As long as you're free with the Earth dollars." Roderigo impersonated Iago's advice. "I've been giving you money to give to Desdemona for weeks and nothing's happened! I'm just going to go up and tell her that I won't put up with this kind of thing and ask for my money back." Iago's mind flashed briefly to images of himself tucking Roderigo's money into the panties of a stripper.  
"No! You can't do that!" He yelled. He continued more calmly, "Look, success is within reach, I'm telling you. She'll fall for you soon. All you have to do is be patient."  
Roderigo sighed. "Alright."  
"There's something you need to do for me, though. Othello and I were talking in the automatic muscle-toning machine the other day. He mentioned something about taking Desdemona holidaying on the rings of Saturn. You do realise that if she goes away you're chances of getting with Desdemona are going to be close to nil."  
"What should we do?" Roderigo looked alarmed.  
"If Cassio. met with an unfortunate fatal accident. Othello would be forced to stay here in the Pleiades." Iago suggested.  
"Sure thing, yeah." Roderigo said, thinking of how happy he and Desdemona could be as he walked away.  
Iago watched him leave, then looked around to make sure no one was within hearing distance. He threw his head back and gave his evil laugh. Sighing in disappointment, he realised that Othello's evil laugh sounded better than his.  
  
Desdemona and Emilia had gone to the Cosmos Bar after dinner to have a drink and unwind. In the smoky atmosphere of the bar they had come across Othello and Lodovico near a digital painting of a supernova.  
"Goodnight ladies." Lodovico said, leaving some money on the bar and preparing to leave.  
"Desdemona," Othello said, neither tenderly nor coldly, emotionless, "You should go to bed. I'll be with you in a moment." He followed Lodovico out.  
Desdemona swirled the remaining liquid around her glass. "Emilia, if I die before you I want my body to be jettisoned into space wrapped in my wedding sheets." She sculled the rest of her drink.  
"Why do you talk about dying?" Emilia inquired.  
"Oh, never mind." Desdemona sighed. "It was just a silly thought." After a long pause, she asked, "Do you think there are still women who cheat on their husbands? I mean, I've been to the monument to that ancient god people used to worship . what was his name. Jerry Springer, so I know that kind of thing happened way back in the dark ages, but do you think it still happens today?"  
Emilia nodded her head. "Sure."  
"I would never do something like that." Desdemona said passionately. "I wouldn't do it for the entire galaxy."  
"If a woman cheats on her husband it's his fault for not satisfying her. If I was going to get the entire galaxy, then sure I'd cheat on Iago." Emilia said wistfully.  
"I don't know how you could do it." Desdemona looked at her, shocked. She slid off the barstool. "I'm going to bed. Goodbye, Emilia."  
"Bye." Emilia waved tipsily. 


End file.
